It took about one week of games being played in the Major League Baseball season for the media to give the American League MVP award to Shohei Ohtani. This isn’t a surprise as they’ve done this ever since Ohtani started his career with the Los Angeles Angels, but this year Ohtani was the front runner for the award.
Now you have to ask if Ohtani is still the American League MVP. First his season as a pitcher got cut short due to an elbow injury and now the Angels announced that Ohtani’s season as their DH is also over due to an oblique injury.
Ohtani hasn’t pitched in a game since August 23rd and his last appearance as the Angels DH was September 3rd.
Ohtani ends the season with 44 home runs. As a pitcher he made 23 starts and finished with a record of 10-5 with an ERA of 3.14.
Ohtani’s numbers are still very good even with missing these games with his injuries, so there’s a very good possibility that he’s still voted the AL MVP.
For some reason playing on a non-playoff team is never held against Ohtani in the MVP voting, so the fact that it’s another season were the Angels didn’t come close to making the playoffs doesn’t matter in the MVP voting. Oddly the Angels were actually buyers at the trade deadline this season and the media agreed that they did the right thing in acquiring the players that they did to make a run at the playoffs.
For whatever reason their trade acquisitions didn’t work out and the Angels plummeted in the standings. Los Angeles is currently in 4th place in the AL West 15 games behind the division leading Houston Astros and 14 games out of a wild card spot.
The toughest question would be if Ohtani isn’t the AL MVP than who is?
Corey Seager of the Texas Rangers is having a good season, but he missed some games with an injury. Yandy Diaz of the Tampa Bay Rays is also putting up some good numbers. Both of these players are big contributors to their teams winning this season, but is that enough to be considered for the MVP award?
The voters always seem to like the power hitters, but Ohtani was 9 home runs ahead of anybody else in the American League. Also, the only AL home run leader who’s on a playoff contender is Adolis Garcia of the Rangers, but he’s hitting .244 and is currently out injured.
There really isn’t an American League pitcher that’s having a dominant season who should be considered for the MVP award.
Zach Eflin leads the AL in wins with 15. Gerrit Cole of the New York Yankees is leading in ERA a with a 2.81 while Kevin Gausman is leading the AL in strikeouts with 222. There could’ve been an outside chance that Felix Bautista of the Baltimore Orioles could’ve garnered some consideration for MVP and Cy Young as he was having a dominant year as Baltimore’s closer, but he hasn’t pitched since August 25th due to a UCL injury in his pitching elbow.
So even though he’s not going to play the final month of the season and he hasn’t pitched in an even longer time Ohtani should and probably will win the AL MVP award. Unless you have an option that I missed.
The other odd thing I find about this Ohtani missing the rest of the season story was the way that the media made a big deal out of his locker being cleaned out. Now there is a very good possibility that Ohtani will be leaving the Angels as a free agent this off season, but that has nothing to do with why his locker was cleaned out.
Do you think that any player that is or has missed the season with an injury still has a locker in the clubhouse? Plus, it’s September, so there are going to be minor league call ups that will need room in the locker room. It just seemed incredibly stupid that such a big deal was made out of this, but I guess that’s what the media does.
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